A prize to show U.N. is route to peace

OSLO, OCT. 12. The United Nations shared the Nobel Peace Prize with its leader, Mr. Kofi Annan, on Friday for moving to the forefront of efforts to achieve peace and security in a post-Cold War world.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the 10 million Swedish kronor ($943,000) award would be given to the world body and Mr. Annan in equal parts, citing ``their work for a better organised and more peaceful world.'' Mr. Annan, 63, became the U.N. Secretary- General in 1997 - the first leader to be elected from the ranks of United Nations staff. He has been praised for his character, moral leadership, his focus on civil wars in Africa and elsewhere and his efforts to combat AIDS.

``The end of the Cold War has at last made it possible for the U.N. to perform more fully the part it was originally intended to play,'' the awards citation said. Mr. Annan, who has devoted almost his entire working life to the world body, was lauded for ``bringing new life to the organisation,'' that has often taken great risks in the promotion of human rights and conflict resolution since the end of World War II.

Mr. Annan, who was woken shortly after 0900 GMT in New York with the news, said he was humbled and challenged. ``It honours the U.N. but also challenges us to do more and do better, not to rest on our laurels,'' he said. The announcement comes a month after the September 11 terror attacks in the U.S. and almost a week into the U.S.-led military retaliation against Afghanistan, accused of harbouring the main suspect in the attacks Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Annan has responded to the attacks by trying to galvanise an international campaign under the U.N. umbrella to defeat terrorism. He said on Friday that ``depending on what happens in Afghanistan, the U.N. may have an important role there to play. But that will also depend on the member-States in terms of the kind of mandate we are given and the resources and support that comes with it.''

The soft-spoken Secretary-General, who is from Ghana, was the head of U.N. peacekeeping operations when he was tapped for the top job after the U.S. lobbied to prevent his predecessor, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, from taking a second term. He joined the United Nations in 1962 as an administrator with the World Health Organisation in Geneva. His U.N. career has been incredibly varied with posts in Africa and Europe in almost every area of the organisation, from budget management to peacekeeping. In an unprecedented vote of confidence, he was unanimously re- elected to a second five-year term by the 189 U.N. member-States in June, six months before his first term expires on December 31.

U.N. agencies and people connected to it repeatedly have won the prize, but it had never gone to the world body itself. In 1961, the then Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold was awarded posthumously following his death in a plane crash on a peace mission to Congo. Annan is the fifth African to be awarded, following South Africans Albert J. Luthuli in 1960, Desmond Tutu in 1984, Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk in 1993.

His Swedish wife, Nane, told The Associated Press that she was ``bubbling over with happiness for my husband and for everyone working at the U.N.''

The Nobel Prize celebrates its centennial this year and the peace prize committee said it wanted to mark the milestone by proclaiming that ``the only negotiable route to global peace and co-operation goes by way of the United Nations.''

- AP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : India will be 'concerned' if U.S. supplies arms
           to Pak.: Mansingh